Looking to replace Amazon Associates Link Builder links? Want to see if your site will be affected by its shutdown? Read on.

UPDATE – We now offer support for those that were using the Amazon Link plugin as well.

Amazon recently announced that their plugin, the Amazon Associates Link Builder (AALB), will no longer work on March 9, 2020. This has left people wondering “What now??” (And we have the emails to prove it.)

If you have ever used the AALB, anything you’ve ever built with it will break. Amazon is not providing any bulk means of updating these links, and they will no longer be providing support.
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In this post, we’ll dig into a recent email regarding Amazon’s affiliate program policy update and what it means for bloggers.

As with many of the policies in their affiliate program, this statement can be interpreted in different ways and, based on all the emails we’ve received has caused a lot of confusion.

Keep reading to get it all straightened out.

What Did Amazon Send?

Amazon sent out the following email to associates including the following:

To meet the Associate Program’s requirements, you must (1) include a legally compliant disclosure with your links and (2) identify yourself on your Site as an Amazon Associate with the language required by the Operating Agreement. To comply with Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations, your link-level disclosure must be:1. Clear. A clear disclosure could be as simple as “(paid link)”, “#ad” or “#CommissionsEarned”.2. Conspicuous. It should be placed near any affiliate link or product review in a location that customers will notice easily. They shouldn’t have to hunt for it.

Full statement here.

In the end the above requirements concerning the FTC, while not previously emphasized so directly by Amazon, are not actually new. They’ve been a requirement for years and something bloggers were required to have been compliant with all along.

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Passwords, Site Backup and Your Security

A couple times every week I read an article about the next high profile company that got hacked. Or that stored client data unsecurely. Or discovered their backup was corrupted when they went to restore it.

Most businesses in the corporate would spend huge amounts of money implementing their disaster recovery plan and enforcing company security policies.

Isn’t it worth thinking about these things, at least a little bit, to protect the business you’ve built?

Let’s talk about what I consider the bare minimum steps you should be taking to ensure your business is protected from disaster.

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Doesn’t everyone love a surprise?

The best dramas are full of them, and the Gutenberg saga is no different.

Developers have been discussing when the new editor should go live after the November 19 (and then 27) dates were missed. Consensus was strongly in favor of January, but the plot apparently was getting stale with too much dialogue.

This just in! WordPress 5.0 and the Gutenberg editor that comes with it is being released Thursday, December 6 (less than 2 days from now).

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